HAROLD Williams (Baritone)
The WIRELESS MILITARY BAND
Conducted by B. WALTONO 'DONNELL
FOR the Diamond Jubilee of Queen
Victoria, Sir Arthur Sullivan composed two very differentpieces of music, one in a thoroughly popular form, and tho other for use in church or amid surroundings of solemn ceremony. The latter was a Festival To Deum, performed first at the Chester Festival in that year, 1897. The other, which is to be played this afternoon, was a lighthearted and graceful Ballet, which had itsfirst performance on the Alhambrastage on the actual Jubilee day in tho samo year.
Though it is but seldom heard now, it is a good example of Sullivan's happy way of blending lighthearted tunes with sound orchestration and workmanship generally. It included, for instance, a Fugue, which was actually danced, not by any means a usual number in a ballet. To tho musical world, that was naturally the most interesting feature of tho work.
There is a vigorous, almost stormy introduction, which dies away very softly. The next movement, also beginning softly, is the entrance cf the Hunters, a brisk movement in
6.4 time, at that date still something of a novelty. It leads through a rapid passage in common time to a dainty waltz movement. That, in turn, passes through a short movement in jig time to a boisterous Galop, and, with a brief return to the waltz, the Suite comes to an end.